In a speech announcing his candidacy for South Carolina’s highest office Friday, Bryant said he learned while traveling across the state that people simply believe that the political culture in Columbia breeds corruption. “Politicians in Columbia reject the integrity of the free market when they embrace the corruption of insider deals,” he said while speaking outside a vending and food service business in his native Anderson.

Bryant had a reputation as one of the Senate’s more conservative members during his time in the chamber. He volunteered to become lieutenant governor in January after the office became vacant when Henry McMaster became governor upon Nikki Haley’s appointment as United Nations ambassador.

“It is time to restore integrity in your government,” Bryant continued. “It belongs to you not the big government cronies in Columbia.”

Bryant joins Gov. Henry McMaster, former Department of Health and Environmental Control chief Catherine Templeton and former Lt. Gov. Yancey McGill in the Republican primary next year.

Bryant is holding a press conference at a vending and food services business in his hometown Friday. His office said the lieutenant governor will discuss his plans for the 2018 election year.

He would be the fourth Republican candidate to enter the race, joining incumbent Gov. Henry McMaster, former Department of Health and Environmental Control director Catherine Templeton and former Lt. Gov. Yancey McGill.

Bryant had built up a reputation as one of the Senate’s more hardline conservative “back-bench” members. The pharmacist had represented Anderson County in the chamber from 2005 until January, when he agreed to give up his seat and become lieutenant governor when McMaster took the state’s highest office. McMaster is serving out the last two years of previous Gov. Nikki Haley’s term while serves as United Nations ambassador.

Next year will be the first election that the governor and lieutenant governor will run on the same ticket. Voters changed the state constitution in 2012 to allow the governor pick his or her running mate after more than a century of electing the office separately.

Lt. Gov. Kevin Bryant, R-Anderson, said he has not made a decision yet on whether or not he will run for governor next year, even as he filed a campaign finance report this week.

Lt. Gov. Kevin Bryant. (File)

Bryant reported $100,825 in contributions were made during the past three months. He told the Anderson Independent Mail newspaper that about $40,000 was transferred from his former state Senate campaign account to a lieutenant governor’s account set up earlier this year. He said the rest came from campaign donations.

Starting with the 2018 gubernatorial election the candidates for governor and lieutenant governor will run on the same party ticket. Bryant said he intends to decide later this summer if he will run for governor in 2018.

Bryant served in the Senate for 11 years until February, when he agreed to step down and briefly be elected Senate President pro tempore simultaneous with then-Gov. Nikki Haley’s resignation. Under state law, he then replaced Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster when the latter was promoted to governor.

Gov. Henry McMaster plans to seek a full term as governor next year. Two other Republicans — former state Department of Health and Environmental Control director Catherine Templeton and former Lt. Gov. Yancey McGill — already plan on running in the Republican primary against McMaster.

Gov. Henry McMaster speaking at the University of South Carolina last month (File)

The latest campaign filings show, at least financially, a Republican challenger to incumbent Gov. Henry McMaster appears to be holding her own in the fundraising game.

Catherine Templeton’s 2018 gubernatorial campaign reported the former state health and environmental chief had raised $750,000 in the quarter that ended June 30. The haul was just behind the $806,000 McMaster’s campaign claimed in the same period. McMaster also has slightly more money in the bank from previous cycles.

McMaster became governor after then-Gov. Nikki Haley stepped down to become United Nations ambassador in January. Prior to that, he served two years as lieutenant governor and eight years as attorney general. Templeton was appointed by Haley to lead the state’s Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation in 2011 before she was tapped to head the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) later in the year. She left the agency in 2015. [Read more…]

A mild winter likely means a higher prevalence of ticks in the Palmetto State this summer.

(Image: James Gathany/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

University of South Carolina research professor Mark Macauda told South Carolina Radio Network that ticks can carry diseases such as Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and ehrlichiosis. “Different species of ticks carry different disease,” he said.

“Humans are at different risks, depending on the disease,” Macauda said. “Avoiding tick bites is definitely something that you want to do given the variety of diseases that they can carry.”

Properly dressing for outdoor activities can prevent ticks from attaching. “Wearing long pants and socks in places where you’re going to be where you might pick up a tick is a good idea,” he said. “Wearing light colored clothing so you can see them is advisable because ticks tend to be kind of dark.”

If you discover a tick embedded in your skin, remove it quickly wih either a tick removal device or a set of tweezers. Use the tweezers to grasp the insect as close as possible to the skin. Pull straight up without twisting the tick or any manuever which risks rippiing its head off below your skin. Clean the bite site with soap and water and save the tick for testing.

Most ticks are harmless, but lab tests can determine if the biting insect is carrying a potentially serious disease.

Congressman Mark Sanford is facing one fewer Republican primary opponent next year after a would-be challenger dropped out Wednesday due to being called up for active duty military service.

South Carolina Congressman Mark Sanford. file

According to the Charleston Post and Courier, Tom Perez said he was suspending his campaign to take on Sanford in the 1st Congressional District due to a military obligation overseas. Perez is an officer in the Naval Reserve who lives in the Charleston area.

In announcing his campaign suspension, Perez said he will be away on active military duty on dates that would overlap with parts of the campaign. Perez said he would not be coming back from his deployment until after the primary election in June 2018.

As of now, Sanford is heading into the 2018 election cycle expecting a primary challenge next June from Ted Fienning.

Sanford is in his second go-round representing South Carolina’s First Congressional District after winning a special election in 2013. He previously held the seat from 1995 to 2001.

The Republican nomination for the Fifth Congressional District race will not be officially decided until Friday at the earliest.

Since the margin between former State Rep. Ralph Norman and State Rep. Tommy Pope on Tuesday night was less than one percent, state law requires an automatic recount.

South Carolina Election Commission spokesman Chris Whitmire said the recount process starts at the county level. “The counties basically do everything they did on Election Day,” he told South Carolina Radio Network. “So they’ll rescan all of the paper ballots and they’ll reread all of the electronic media that came in from the voting machines at the polling places.”

Whitmire said that the state election board will meet Friday to confirm the result. “The board will plan to meet at 2 pm on Friday to certify the results of that recount with the caveat that as long as the counties are done and everything is in order,” he said.

Pope and Norman are vying to face the Democratic nominee Archie Parnell on June 20. The Fifth District House seat was vacated when Mick Mulvaney became director of the White House Office of Management and Budget in February.

Either Republican is expected to have a large advantage over Parnell in the conservative-leaning district. More than 39,000 people cast their ballots on the GOP side during the May 2 primary, while fewer than 19,000 voted in the Democratic race. South Carolina does not require voters to register by party, however.

A longtime activist and political consultant will serve as the next chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party.

Drew McKissick was elected with 86 percent of the vote during the party’s annual convention in Columbia on Saturday, defeating Mark Powell of Anderson County.

“I’ve been blessed to be involved in every aspect of our party for three decades now – serving in elected, appointed and volunteer positions,” he said in a statement after released by the party. “As Chairman, I’ll work to help make the South Carolina Republican Party an even more effective vehicle to advance our conservative platform and continue to defeat Democrats up and down the ballot and all across our state.”

He will replace Matt Moore, who had served as chairman for the past four years and helped the state GOP slightly increase the number of legislative seats it holds statewide. Moore has started working with the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition in Washington, D.C.

McKissick has been active in the South Carolina Republican Party for decades, representing the state party in the national Republican National Committee (RNC) and attending seven national conventions as a delegate. Until this year, he also worked as the RNC’s Eastern director of faith engagement. Another former SCGOP chairman Chad Connelly led the office until he dropped out to run unsuccessfully for Congress in January.

His term will last until May 2019 and will include next year’s governor’s race and the various statewide elected offices which will be held at the same time. Next year will be the first time the governor and lieutenant governor run on the same ticket under a constitutional change approved by voters in 2012.

A Republican state legislator from Anderson County on Thursday officially announced his run for South Carolina Secretary of State.

State Rep. Joshua Putnam, R-Anderson, announcing his candidacy for South Secretary of State at the Statehouse. South Carolina Radio Network photo.

State Rep. Joshua Putnam, R-Piedmont, said the office needs more transparency and easier access. “Over the next year we’re going to lay out our road map for what the potential and the benefit and what the secretary’s office should be to the everyday person in our state,” he said while announcing his candidacy ]at the Statehouse.

The Secretary of State’s office in South Carolina handles business filings and registers charities. Current Secretary of State Mark Hammond is also a Republican who would face Putnam in a primary should he run for reelection. Hammond has held the office since winning it in 2002.

Putnam said that the office needs to be a place where business can be done easily. “If you have a dream in South Carolina the office should help you with that dream,” he said. “It should not be a nightmare. Government should not be a nightmare.”

He said he wants to breathe new life into the office. “It’s time to refresh that leadership with new vision and new hope.”